There’s the afternoon news show, the daily announcements, the desk girls area, and the paper and paper online.
Here’s the characters
-Characters-
Thelia Browning, 30- Thelia is the new journalism teacher after long-time teacher, Mr. Gomez, retires. She's a former supermodel, and is clearly only given the job because the school board assume her to be stupid and want the class to fail. However, Thelia works hard to prove she's smarter than she looks. It is later revealed she wanted to be a news anchor, but her degree only got her a desk job because nobody thought she was smart enough. She later quits to become a supermodel, but is laid-off after she hits the age of thirty. Nicole at first dislikes her, because she feels like someone who doesn't know what she's doing, but later proves she's a lot smarter and calmer than anyone gives her credit for.
Nicole Sanders, 18- Nicole rules the journalism office as editor-in-chief of the paper, overseer of many projects, former head typist and reporter, and co-producer of The Afternoon News. Nicole is known for her calm and stress-free attitude, and is very serious about her job. She adores being in charge of many things, but also likes helping people out.
Jack Maxwell, 18- Jack is Nicole and Rosaline's best friend since elementary school. He is well-liked by the students around the office for his sarcastic, funny, and not-serious attitude and work ethic, which often gets under Nicole's skin. However, as the co-editor of SomeTimes Online and Eastvale Online and co-producer of The Afternoon News, he's proved countless times he does care about his job.
Rosaline Cerrito, 17- Rosaline is Nicole and Jack's best friend since elementary school. As a former druggie, drinker, and overall bad person, she was bullied heavily for her learning disabilities and bad grades. Rosaline comes from a bad home, but uses the paper and journalism class as a way to escape all the bad things in her life and not fall down the same path as her parents. She works as a head typist, designer of SomeTimes Online and Eastvale Online, and the junior-editor for the paper. She often uses her bad-apple personality many stuck on her to get secret information about drug rings, cheating, and parties.
Henry Johnson, 15- Henry is a young Freshman who enjoys reading, writing, and journalism. He's often picked on for being a dork, teacher's pet, and suck-up. However, he struggles with low self-esteem and social anxiety. Because his hard work is tossed aside after he is accepted, he doesn't get assigned anything and is used as an office clerk and Elle's assistant. He later gets mentored by Nicole and becomes best friends with Raine and Kira, and they (along with Mara and a few of the office girls) work to go undercover and find information about the rival paper, Eastvale Tribune.
Raine Mast, 14- Raine is the youngest worker in the journalism office. She joins the paper after being tired of everyone (including her friends, teachers, and parents) assuming she's nothing more than a stupid popular girl because of her social status. So, she says goodbye to all her friends, breaks up with her sexist boyfriend, and joins the paper to spite everyone who did her wrong. She's mentored by Jack, who grows closer with her as they have similar interests and struggle with people assuming they aren't intelligent or responsible. She is later assigned as one of The SomeTimes Paper reporters, but is given the boring topic of politics. Later on, she gets her own advice column and helps out girls who have been struggling with the same problems as her.
Kira Belle Gosset, 15- Kira is a young, troubled girl who is forced to join the journalism class by her teacher, Mrs. Bailey, who seems to be the only adult who cares about her well-being. Kira seems like she doesn't care about anything or anyone, but it's later on obvious that isn't the case. She's being neglected by her parents, her boyfriend's been abusing her, and she's used drugs and alcohol to cope with her depression and anxiety. She often steals so her parents won't beat her for asking for dinner. Kira is mentored by Rosaline, who takes pity on her and realizes she's just like her, which terrifies her. She convinces Nicole that she does mean well and to assign her something meaningful. So she eventually does get the part as a writer for the paper, and writes about current events.
Christina "Tina" Moses, 16- Tina is one-half of the Moses twin reporter duo. She is Frankie's twin sister, but much more fashionable, popular, and vain. Tina is the head reporter for field events, and worked hard for this. Truthfully, she just wants to be on camera and doesn't really care about journalism that much. She also does it to get closer to her crush, Jamie, who is the field cameraman. She later learns to appreciate journalism, and realizes she's very good at her job. Still, she often wears her hair poofed up, lots of makeup, and fancy dresses whenever she goes outside. Tina is popular for her looks, and seems to be very vain and to not care about the feelings of others. This is not true, and Nicole helps her and her sister work out the differences between them.
Francine "Frankie" Moses, 16- Frankie is one-half of the Moses twin reporter duo. Unlike her extroverted twin sister, Tina, Frankie prefers to wear simpler outfits when reporting stories. Frankie is also less popular, and often stays in the journalism classroom because she doesn't have many friends and doesn't want to embarass Tina. She wants to impress her parents with her grades and reporter job, but is often outshined by Tina's accomplishments. She is later angered at the fact that it's clear Tina only wanted to be head-reporter because it meant she would be in front of the camera. She still often works harder than Tina, because she wants her accomplishments to be talked about too.
Jamie Myles, 17- Jamie is the field cameraman for the three field reporters. He enjoys cinematography and photography, and often acts very angsty. He seems to never show any true emotion, and Tina falls head over heels in love with him. Jamie doesn't romantically like Tina because he thinks she's too vain and materialistic, which she doesn't see as a bad thing.
Paula Zuck, 16- Paula is the quiet and very awkward and clumsy records manager, office clerk, and receptionist. She's very accident prone. Thelia sees potential in Paula, and forces her to put her desk duties on hold, and makes her the third field reporter. Paula is very camera shy, but learns to be more extroverted and confident in her words. As a records manager, she is solely responsible for managing all the school and journalism records, which she appears to enjoy and be very good at. She, along with the other office girls, answers the phone, type documents, and files records. She also answers the questions for anyone who comes to the office and asks them.
Frances Parkinson, 17- Frances is the happy to help data entry clerk. She became an office girl after she wasn't accepted into the robotics club, despite her amazing grades and abilities in computer programming and technology. While she appears to have an endless amount of patience in the office and when she deals with broken computers and bugs, she is easily angered after hours. As a data entry clerk, she enters all the physical copies into the computers manually by typing them out again. She is a very fast typer, and also is the one who fixes all the broken, damaged, or not-working electronics in the office.
Judy Schmidt, 16- Judy is the superstitious and easily stressed out office clerk. She is the one who connects phone calls to either the principal, Miss Browning, or any one in the office. She also types documents and files records. She is named as the understudy secretary for Mara, but only does the job once after Mara isn't at school once, which has only happened one time in her entire school career. Judy is easily nervous and often lets people walk all over her, but Frances and Paula help her with her self-esteem and teach her to value herself more.
Elle/L. Laurence, 17- Elle is the mysterious benefactor revealed in episode 1. She is the one who makes a large donation that is enough to fund the journalism class for at least two more years. She is very brooding and mysterious, and revealed later on to be a worker at Eastvale Tribune, who was laid off for unspecified reasons. She helps the class get revenge on it's workers, get their stories back, and beat the paper. She is later given many office roles. Because she prefers to stay out of the limelight, she becomes an office assistant to Miss Browning, an accounts manager, and is the one who gets people to buy the paper and manages the sales. She is later known as "The Boss" as she seems to be very powerful and capable of bad things, but uses these for good. As an accounts manager, she manages all the sales, budget, and relationships with those who buy the paper.
Mara O'Malley, 17- Mara is one of Nicole's best friends, and a girl with many talents and jobs. Mara carries the weight of the world on her shoulders, but doesn't crack under pressure and easily handles tension and stress. Along with being the office manager, secretary, and office administrator, she also works as one of the co-hosts on The Afternoon News. As office manager, she organizes all the procedures and operations in the class, designs the filing systems, and assigns different tasks to different people. She is also one of the three people who approve somebody for joining the class, and is very strict. She also schedules meetings with Miss Browning, maintains files, answers the phone, and arranges meetings with different staff members in the school office. Finally, as an office admin, she ensures that everyone in the desk section does their jobs right, and provides structure for everyone. She also works as one of the co-host of The Afternoon News with Paul Vernon and Dana Ford. She reports on current events, school drama, finance, and politics.
Paul Vernon, 18- Paul is Mara's best friend, who often tries to calm her down as she is easily angered, especially with Dana. Paul and Mara are long-time co-hosts, who have irreplaceable chemistry. However they both start to dislike their job more after Miss Browning chooses their other co-host and best friend, Gertrudia "Trudi" Papidokas as one of several workers replaced. They also start to dislike it as Trudi is replaced with an airhead and school slut named Dana. Paul later starts to like Dana more, and becomes her boyfriend for several months, much to the dismay of Mara. Paul is the one who reports the weather.
Dannika "Dana" Ford, 17- Dana is known as the school-wide slut and airhead, and doesn't do anything to try to dispel any rumors or save her reputation. In fact, she encourages people to call her this, and often tells the journalism students about different instances that would make her a huge slut. She also tells Mara that she doesn't know how she got the job, as her teacher told her that hooking up with the entire football team wasn't a notable accomplishment. Dana is a casual partyier, drinker, drug user, and sex-haver. She does start to have a crush on Paul, and enjoys getting under Mara's skin. Dana has a few redeemable qualities, as she starts to take her job more seriously. She later becomes friends with Mara, who starts to tolerate her reckless lifestyle. Dana at first doesn't care about her job, and often goes off script, doesn't remember what she has to say, and uses her phone or does other things during the broadcast when it's her turn to talk. She also gets in physical fights with Mara several times before they become friends and she starts to change her habits.
Elisabeth "Betty" Gotti, 18- Betty works as the camerawoman for The Afternoon News, who likes to keep the broadcast fun and light-hearted. She dreams of going to university to be a filmmaker, and has shown her films in different festivals and won many awards for her talent. However, her dream job is soon ruined after she has to share the camera-woman position with new worker, Janet, who hates having it be fun or lighthearted. She often loses control of the camera and has Janet keep the broadcast serious and write all the lines. Betty has endless patience while Janet has none, and this allows them to become friends later on.
Janet Cooke, 18- Janet is the new co-camerawoman of The Afternoon News. She likes everything to be serious and not-lighthearted all the time. She is also promoted to the editor, so she makes sure that later broadcasts aren't edited to look like they are having any fun. She does let her guard down several times, and becomes less-serious out of work. She also is very opinionated and everything has to be done in her way.
Noel Horton, 17- Noel is a soccer player, who enjoys reading and writing stories in his free-time. He is also later Jay's boyfriend. Noel comes from a very serious family, and his dad wants him to be fully focused on sports. As such, even though he has been working on the paper for two years, he never told his father out of fear of disappointment. He also doesn't tell his parents about Jay as he knows his father is racist, and Jay is Indian. Noel writes about sports and holidays.
Jake Whittaker, 16- Jake is also a soccer player, a long time best friend of Noel. Jake is bisexual, and in a relationship with a male, but hasn't come out to his parents yet. He is afraid to, even though he knows his parents would love him no matter what. Jake writes about finance and pop-culture. Though, all the finance reports for the news show, paper, and online sections are all pre-written and checked by Elle.
Jaya Ganatra/Jay Getaway, 16- Jaya, better known by her pen name, Jay Getaway, is an Indian girl who has been working on the paper as a writer since her freshman year. She enjoys comics, movies, and loves fashion. Her dream is to become a fashion designer or comic artist, but her traditional parents want her to become a doctor. She also angers her parents by wearing nose piercings, beanies, and peace signs. She hasn't told her parents about her art-career dreams or that she isn't dating an Indian. Jay draws comics for the monthly paper, and also posts weekly comics on the school website.
Carman Cortes Gonzalez, 15- Carman is a very outgoing and kind Mexican girl. She loves to read, learn about different cultures, and wants to go to France as an exchange student. She also wants to become a weather girl when she grows up, which many people laugh at as they think it's a silly job to want so badly. But, Carman is determined and even writes the weather report, and how to stay warm or cool during the summer and winter months.
Lucille Calvrt, 16- Lucille is one of the most popular girls in school. As such, she knows all about school drama and is the one who writes the drama report for Mara to read on the news. She also writes on her online blog about school events, and on the online paper writes about current events and pop culture that she understands. Lucille loves her job, but her mother thinks she should become a more serious writer and thinks writing about pop culture will get her nowhere.
Nicki Warner, 17- Nicki is a girl who adores sports and adores writing about them even more. She joins the boys football team when everyone says she can't. She also is on the swim team, dance squad, and basketball team. Nicki is amazing at what she does and can talk about sports and sports history for hours. She knows everything about any kind of sport. She also wants to be a sports writer when she grows up, or even a broadcaster. Nicki loves girly and boyish things. She likes to do her hair and makeup and wear a purse, but she also loves jeans, sports, and having short hair.
Jason Wright, 18- Jason is one of Nicki's best friends and biggest "fans". Jason is a baseball player and loves to be friends with someone like Nicki, who enjoys sports just as much as he does. He is amazed by how great she is at writing about sports as well, and is honored when she writes a positive article about him and the baseball team. Jason writes about current events.
Julia Maria Carpenter, 16- Julia is a girl who adores the '60s and '70s. She also likes fashion and fantasy novels. Julia is the co-leader of the morning announcements, and is well known for her kind and chipper voice. Julia later has to share this with a new guy named Xander. Xander prefers to read the announcements in funny voices and accents to amuse people, and to tell jokes and goof around. She later becomes his best friend and they become an epic pranking duo.
Alexander "Xander" Pikeman, 16- Xander is a boy who is like Jack. He enjoys gooding off, being sarcastic, and telling jokes. He does his job to make the students laugh and happy in the mornings. So, he prefers to go off script, act goofy, and use funny accents and voices. This greatly annoys his co-reader, Julia. He later becomes best friends with Julia, and they form an epic pranking duo.
